Having secured £418,000 from the Coastal Communities Fund, Torridge District Council made a range of enhancements to its seafront area including a nod to its literary pedigree and one of the nation's favourite poems.
Following consultation with local residents, the idea emerged of honouring the memory of Rudyard Kipling who spent several of his childhood years in Westward Ho! So the first verse of his most well-known poem If, was spelt out along the promenade in granite setts.
The poem came first in a BBC poll to find the nation's favourite verse. While Kipling used his great rheorical skills to lay down those lines, laying them out in the pavement was no easy matter either. As the man said, 'if you can keep you head...'
Local contractor Devon & Cornwall Surfacing (DCS) realised the complexity of making shapes with traditional granite setts and so opted for Quicksetts, which have a thickness of 18mm and so can be adhered without the need for excavation.
Resin bound aggregate was then used to infill to a depth of 18mm between the letters.
Jobling Purser worked closely with DCS to produce the tender price for the council by formulating a layout plan to accommodate the dimensions required.
DCS then lay out each letter using a combination of the square and inner dovetail Quicksetts. Once content with the shape of the letter, they marked around the area and removed the Quicksetts noting their position and spacing.
The Quicksetts Bedding and Jointing Compound, based upon polyurethane technology, was mixed and applied to the marked out area and the Quicksetts could then be simply placed into the resin to form the shape of each letter and be allowed to set.
Once the poem was complete, resin bound surfacing supplied by Sureset was laid to an 18mm thickness infilling around the Quicksetts.
The crew completed 71 words, made up of 271 letters in just 6 days.
IF you can keep your head when all around you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
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